Shin Usagi is Dead
by Dark Day For Anime
Summary: For Naiad Keth Drutein, dead Miko of the ancient and equally dead Moon Kingdom of Sol, the living are but a means to an end, even if she is not sure what that end may be.... One thing is for certain, Usagi is not going to be pleased with the outcome.


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IASFU OA FWSS IASFU OA FWSS GOO JUA GOO JIPEST  
and again  
IASFU OA FWSS IASFU OA FWSS GOO JUA GOO JIPEST  
  
  
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I bleed. For the hearts and minds of the losers of the   
universe. And that is, for all of us.... For we are all losers,  
and the greatest of all is the one who realises this and does  
nothing to change it.  
  
I bleed. From wounds too great to heal. I want to be loved  
and hated all in one. The weapons I use against others only proceed  
to hurt me more. Soon it will end, and then it will begin again.   
Those for whom I care about the most will face my wrath.  
  
I bleed. From eyes with tears of self-pity and self-hatred.  
There is nobody who could care about someone whose exterior is so  
thin the merest pinprick of contempt causes wounds more akin to  
a dagger, a sword. And the pain lasts far far longer.  
  
I bleed. For too long. Perhaps it is time to change but I  
cannot change for I am without the desire and without the desire  
there can be no change. Thus comes the onset of decreptitude, the  
rotting remains of a soul that has never known happiness.  
  
Since time began. And for some period before that.  
  
There is no death for me.  
  
  
  
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Prelude  
  
  
The grass-covered valleys and fields that ran between   
the rock-covered mountainsides of central Asia were a quiet place.   
At least, that was what it seemed to the young, dark green haired   
girl known as Hecate.  
  
There was rarely, if ever, anyone passing through the starkly   
beautiful valley she called home. She liked it that way. It was  
hard enough for her to deal with herself without the added   
complications of others' needs, and the necessity for the ordinary  
social graces expected of one. Her sister agreed with the   
sentiments. But then, as their mother would often say, their   
destiny was very different from that of others.  
  
Hecate had come running back to the house after playing in the  
fields. Naiad, as usual, was sitting on a small stone-hewn seat,  
reading. It was all her older sister ever seemed to do.  
  
"Naiad-chan...." Hecate trotted up to her sister's side.   
"The flowers...."  
  
Naiad raised her head, brushing her almost glowing blue hair  
away from her face as she smiled at her sibling. "What is it,   
Hecate?"  
  
"They're blossoming again.... Just over the rise.... So many  
of them, buds and flowers...."  
  
"And prickles and thorns, if you're not careful." Naiad drew  
Hecate to her and lifted up her younger sister's simple woollen  
dress, pointing out the number of seeds and such that were caught in  
its fibres. "Look at this.... It'll take ages to remove that lot."  
  
"Gomen, 'neesan...." Hecate put a finger to her mouth,   
looking suitably chastised. "It's just so warm outside, and the   
flowers were too beautiful.... I had to...."  
  
"Roll in the grass, yes yes yes...." Naiad sighed,   
remembering the lectures she had received from their mother about   
doing the self same things.... She shook her head, sadly.... Life,   
and time, were very strange things.... The patterns of behaviour,   
repeating themselves. She wondered if it were at all possible to   
break the mould and change those cycles....  
  
  
"Look, oneechan.... It's an eagle!" Hecate pointed,   
excitedly into the air, stepping back from her sister. "It's one of  
the eagles from the mountains."  
  
Naiad turned and looked up at the bird, its vast wingspan   
clearly visible. "That's no eagle, Cate." She stood, excitedly.  
"It's a Destiny Falcon."  
  
"Wao!" Hecate leapt across the courtyard of the house,   
watching the bird fly. "They're the rarest bird in the world....   
In the entire universe.... What is one doing here?" Before Naiad  
could answer, the bird started to circle over the rise from which   
Hecate had come. Hecate, in her excitement, ran back towards the   
rise in an effort to see what it was circling, leaving Naiad to   
watch it from the house.  
  
"A Destiny Falcon...." Naiad whispered to herself, softly.   
"What message have you come to bring for us? For me?"  
  
  
A warm breeze blew through the yard, and in it, she could hear  
the voice of time call a name....  
  
  
  
Millennia....  
  
  
  
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BISHOUJO SENSHI SAILORMOON  
  
USAGI IS DEAD - USAGI IS DEAD - HIP HIP HIP HOORAY  
or "More Usagis Than You Can Poke a Moon Wand At"  
  
Chapter 1 - Method in the Madness  
  
by Dark Day for Anime (Mark A Page)  
  
  
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IASFU OA FWSS IASFU OA FWSS GOO JUA GOO JIPEST  
and again  
IASFU OA FWSS IASFU OA FWSS GOO JUA GOO JIPEST  
  
  
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There was nothing. And then there was something. Without a  
body, it was hard to tell which was which, but she had long since  
been used to the sensations that came with a non-corporeal   
existence.  
  
Her emotions welled as she stared down at the pathetic-looking  
figure of the blond-haired girl, asleep with her hair cast around   
her face like a golden halo. Feelings of sadness and contempt made  
her want to both hold and lash out the girl, driven by memories of   
the past. Both her own, and that of the girl.  
  
She looked so weak now, and yet Naiad Keth Drutein knew her   
when she held a commanding presence. Indeed, the captain of the   
Moon Kingdom's guard, and high member of the court's inner circle.  
Of all the Senshi, this one she had felt the MOST respect for.  
  
But she was still capable of being a right bitch when she   
wanted to be. Venus, as her designation had been, was once charged  
with investigating Naiad's activities, and she had made the all too  
sensitive Miko's life a misery during that time. For which she paid  
dearly.... Ohhh yes, Naiad made sure Venus was left with a few   
phobias and character flaws after that affair. Nobody EVER pried  
into HER life, openly displaying her most PRIVATE thoughts and   
feelings, allowing her to be humiliated and mocked....  
  
Naiad took control of herself. Bitterness on things past had  
a tendency to eat away at the very fabric of one's being, and her   
being was all that was left of substance. She would have to work   
through these issues at some future date.... But right now, she   
wanted to see if what she was doing to the girl, now known as Aino  
Minako, was having any affect....  
  
Slowly, she lowered herself to Minako, and touched her   
forehead with a ghostly hand....  
  
----o  
  
It was silent, cold and dark. There was nothing. Nothing   
that could be seen or heard. She wanted to scream, but she had no  
mouth with which to perform, and there was nobody here to hear her.  
Because she was dead, and death was the end. the end of everything  
for her, because it was the end of the entity that had been known as  
Aino Minako.  
  
She was dead, and it was bitchier than life. Could there be  
anyone so unlucky as she was, this very moment, to be experiencing  
true death for the very first time? Oh, she had experienced various  
forms of death in the past, but there had always been an element of  
transcendence about that, like there had been a part of her still in  
existence, living and breathing, and interacting with the   
environment around her. And, in a way, that was what she was   
experiencing now. She could still register that complete lack of  
stimuli, which had to be a stimuli within itself, but it was that  
very lack of stimuli that frightened her the most. She was being  
swamped.... Suffocated, by the nothingness, and slowly it was   
eating away at what was left of her consciousness. And she knew   
there was absolutely nothing she could do about it.  
  
Visions of her life passed through what could be thought of  
as her 'mind'. Things she didn't want to let go of. She wanted to  
KEEP experiencing. She wanted to keep EXISTING. But it was over,  
and there was nothing more she could do to stop it. She started to  
panic, and she couldn't even do that. She wanted to scream, but   
she had no mouth with which to perform the act. She wanted to....  
  
----o  
  
"IIIIIIIYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" The scream exploded from her   
throat, perhaps even deeper than that. It was certainly the loudest  
noise she'd ever produced in many a year. And, unfortunately,   
Artemis and Minako's parents were becoming all too accustomed to it.  
  
Artemis knew he hadn't much time to try and compose her before  
her father would come pounding up the stairs to see how his little  
girl was. He was up against her shoulder, front paws trying to   
shake her out of her fugue, shortly after she had thrown herself   
bolt upright from her bed. Minako was panting and keening, her eyes   
and nose running as profusely as the sweat all over her body. She   
was soaked through to the sheets, and was shivering as much with the   
cold as with nerves.  
  
"Minako-chan...." Artemis's voice was soft but insistent.   
"It's alright, Minako-chan.... It was only a dream."  
  
"Dead." She stammered. "I'm dying. D... d d d d dying...."  
She started to panic again, shaking her head from side to side.   
"Can't die yet. I'm too young. It's all wrong. Not going to die.  
Destined to live eternally. Not going to die. Never going to die."  
  
"Minako-chan, stop it! You had a DREAM. That is all."   
Artemis swallowed. "Just another dream. Remember? You've been  
having a lot of nasty dreams, lately. But this is the real world,  
Minako.... The real world, where you are alive and everything is   
safe."  
  
"No.... Not safe. Never will be safe. Going to die. Going  
to be killed. Monsters out there.... Want me to die for their   
pleasure. Can't fight against them.... Too weak.... It's all my  
fault. I deserve to die but I don't want to die. Selfish, ugly and  
stupid. Help meeeeee....." Minako threw away the bedsheets and   
stood bolt upright in the middle of her room, having launched   
herself from the mattress with her amazing athletic skills, almost  
bowling Artemis aside without thinking.  
  
Artemis watched her as she stood, confused, wondering how it   
was she had arrived in this place, this position, and realised that  
she was finally coming to her senses, when, as if on cue, her   
father threw open the door to her bedroom and almost slammed his   
hand down upon the lightswitch.  
  
"Minako-chan...." Her father was breathing heavily. He had  
bolted up the stairs without thinking, and, considering how it had  
been a few years since he was truly fit enough for such an activity,  
was showing the signs of strain. He stepped forward and threw his   
arms around Minako as her mother entered the room, one of her hands  
over her mouth and tears in her eyes. "It's alright, Minako-chan.  
Papa is here.... It's alright."  
  
"Papa....?" Minako whispered, weakly. She seemed too shocked  
to repeat her father's gesture, her arms hanging limply at her   
sides.  
  
----o  
  
Naiad was impressed.... Not only with the progression of   
Minako's psychotic state of mind, but with the volume of the random  
ebbing and flowing of her brain patterns. Naiad had touched   
Minako's very soul and had NOT been detected by either the proto-  
Senshi or the being that had been with her, in the form of the cat.  
  
She hovered near the ceiling, watching events unfold, feeling  
a slight pang of guilt at what she had done.... What HAD to be done  
if things were to work out the way she wanted them to. Those   
feelings passed, rapidly, and she once more returned to the   
nothingness, moving on to another target.... This time one with   
more meaning to her....  
  
----o  
  
Minako's mother slowly descended the stairs as her father sat  
despondently at the kitchen table, a hand over his eyes. "She's  
asleep, now." She whispered as she reached the bottom of the   
stairs, looking through the doorway to the kitchen. He jerked  
upwards, as if registering her for the first time.  
  
"Good." He said, his exhaustion clear in his tone. "I wonder  
how long it will last this time." He turned away from her and   
rubbed his forehead. "We're going to have to get her specialist  
help this time."  
  
"No!" Minako's mother stepped through the door with forceful  
resolve. "No specialists, no psychiatrists or psychologists. She  
doesn't need their help." Her husband turned back and looked at   
her, disbelievingly.  
  
"Minako-chan needs help, for goodness sake. Just because   
you're afraid of what people will think of us...." His wife slammed  
her hands down onto the table.  
  
"I can't go through with all of that again. Not after what  
happened with okaasan...."  
  
"What happened to her is the SAME as Minako. We can't let our  
pride get in the way over what is best for our daughter. Face it,   
if we let this go on, what happened to your mother might also happen  
to Minako. Do you want her to die in such a manner?" His wife took  
a long breath and lifted up her hands, as if to quieten his raising  
tone.  
  
"I just can't accept that my daughter would turn out the same  
way. It's too much. She's always been so happy.... So cheerful.  
Why is this happening to her now?" Tears started to run from her   
eyes, and he took hold of her, pulling her close and hugging   
tightly, trying to console his distraught wife.  
  
"Those moments of cheerful happiness always had their   
downside. The dark moodiness Minako-chan did her best to hide from  
everyone, even the closest of friends."  
  
"Oh Kami.... how are we going to explain to her friends about  
the way she's been acting. I'm sure they've noticed the changes in  
her mood."  
  
"We'll get to that when the time comes. I'm sure they all   
have their own problems right now...."  
  
----o  
  
"You can question your existence and your destiny as much as  
you like...." Erebus Todhunter levelled her gaze to the blue-haired  
woman standing before her. "It will not make any difference,   
whatsoever. Your physical existence is limited, and you simply   
won't be able to stop what is to follow."  
  
Naiad Keth Drutein slowly sank onto one of the lower stairs,   
outside the entrance to the university, where she had encountered   
Erebus flicking through one of the texts of required reading in her   
course without much in the way of interest. "That's always been   
your problem, you know that? You can't but help to look on the   
negative side of everything."  
  
"Occupational hazard." Erebus smiled, brushing a strand of   
her straight, black hair from her strangely round, open eyes.   
Erebus had always a childlike air about her, mostly due to the   
large, doe-like eyes which she possessed. Their expressive quality  
seemed unlimited, yet Erebus had become an expert at using that  
expressiveness for her own ends. Not an easy task for someone who  
was still so young.  
  
"It makes me wonder what the hell I am doing all this study  
for, then? Why am I bothering to learn anything if it's all going  
to be lost the moment I die?" Naiad sighed, clutching her knees to  
her chest, looking down at her feet. "The deeper implications of  
simply wanting to go out and have a good time. If that was at all  
possible...."  
  
"The university won't let you go unless you prove to be a   
total failure, and they certainly won't allow you to deliberately  
fail. Bit of a quandary, isn't it?" Erebus tossed the book aside  
and leaned back against the stone siding of the stairs. "A rather  
all too thorough system, designed to torment the gifted."  
  
"Well, they aren't going to allow anything like the Simiston  
riots again, are they? Even a group of trainee Senshi can do damage  
if they wish to, with long-standing consequences." Naiad huffed.  
"Mores the pity. I'm really itching to give one of my tutors a   
paranoia complex about his ex-wife."  
  
"He probably already has one." Erebus chuckled. "Besides,  
where is the fun in imposing your psychic powers on someone as lowly  
and insignificant as he? No, save his torture for when you're   
bored. Much better to take on the head of the faculty, instead."  
  
"Ah, so you're the one who has been slipping the anchovy paste  
into all of his food?" Naiad turned and looked up at Erebus, who   
raised an eyebrow, a smile in her eyes.  
  
"I didn't say that, now did I?"  
  
"Yeah yeah yeah. How did you discover his allergy to   
anchovies?"  
  
"Now now. You don't think I'm going to give away all of my  
secrets, now do you? Gotta save something for the University   
Chancellor."  
  
----o  
  
"I don't think there was ever a time where you weren't   
diligently obfuscatious...." Naiad whispered to herself as she  
watched over Hotaru's sleeping form. "Always playing the enigma for  
all it was worth. Then you would shut me out in favour of my   
sister. That wasn't really fair, you know." She lowered her wraith  
like hand to touch the girl's face.   
  
Much to her, albeit momentary, surprise, Hotaru reacted,   
turning away from the hand as if it had disturbed her sleep.   
"Yes.... You were always like that...." Naiad held the hand to her   
chest, the expression, on her transluscent face, hurt.   
  
She then turned from the figure, and the girl's bedroom washed   
away into a liquid nothingness, brilliant blue in its depth and   
quantity. The Ocean of the Mind that Naiad had long searched for   
throughout her short life. Now she was free of body to explore its  
depths.... Its eddies and currents.... And to slowly go insane,   
not only through what she found there, but how bored she became,   
seeing the same thing, again and again and again.  
  
All she had found was her OWN mind, not those of others. She  
had been taught in the belief that the Ocean represented all   
thought, of all the people that had ever existed or were to exist.  
It was something of a dogma to her. As the Water Miko of the Third  
Refrain within the Moon Kingdom of Sol, her entire belief structure  
was dedicated to the possibilities of the mind and everything that  
existed within and without it. In Naiad's case, this had been at   
the expense of the physical, which she so despised, partly because   
of those teachings. What was the point of being physically   
acceptable to others, in terms of her humanity, sociability and her   
femininity, if all that really mattered was what resided in her   
skull?  
  
She had explored her mind's physical limitations, through   
drugs, self-hypnosis and all forms of meditation, and had found it  
wanting. She required constant stimulation to make the exercise  
worthwhile, and she very rarely provided the element of surprise, at  
least to herself. So she then started to explore the minds of   
others, and that was where she had REALLY earned herself such a bad  
reputation. Servants and courtiers would recount frightened tales   
of encounters with the Miko, and the things she would do to them   
during these moments.  
  
They had ridiculed her, then.... Treated her with a snobbish  
contempt, or even fear.... The kind of fear that one would normally  
reserve for a wild and unpredictable animal. If it hadn't been for  
her friendship with Queen Tranquility, who knows what could have   
happened to her.... There had been calls to oust her from office,   
calls that Tranquility had vetoed. Tranquility understood her, had  
always understood her.... And she had understood Tranquility VERY  
well. She wanted her back.... She wanted Tranquility back....   
Wanted her back in her arms but she didn't have any arms and now the  
girl was lost to her forever because she was dead and so was   
Tranquility and there was nothing more she could do about it until   
she had found her again if her soul still existed and.... and....   
and....  
  
She screamed. Not a physical scream, but the shriek of a   
restless spirit, echoing through the corridors of eternity and into  
the minds of all those still alive to register. People would not   
remark on the event for long. For all of its effect it was nothing  
more than a hiccup in the various trains of thought, or a sudden   
sensation of falling within a dream. If they were able to dream,   
and there were many who couldn't....  
  
----o  
  
Hotaru opened her eyes and lifted herself from her bed,   
clutching the sheets tightly to her chest. "Hello?" She whispered  
into the darkness of her room. "Hello? I know you're there. I   
could hear you.... Is there something wrong? Are you in pain?"   
The girl's eyes were blank, as if she were talking in her sleep, her  
words motivated by some subconscious source. The eyes then started  
to focus, and gained an expression of disappointment when there was  
no answer to her pleas.  
  
She lay her head back against the pillow and stared at the   
ceiling, feeling slightly annoyed at herself for no seeming reason.  
"I missed her again." She whispered in a slightly huffy tone. "How  
could I miss her so easily? She surely can't be so beyond my   
reach."   
  
She turned on her right side, holding her hands up underneath   
her chin, clenched into fists. Surely her visitor couldn't be   
trying to avoid her? That would be impossible.... Impossible for   
one such as Saturn. With her interconnection to the worlds of the  
dead, there was nowhere such a wandering spirit could hide. Yet   
hide this spirit did, and with great rapidity, not even allowing her  
the opportunity to converse, to find out just why she was receiving  
these regular visitations.  
  
She wondered if it had something to do with the state of mind  
of her comrades. They had all seemed a little odd, lately.... Not  
that any of them could be vaguely described as normal.... Something  
she'd have to ask Pluto about, later. Then again, Pluto would   
probably not give her a straight answer, even if she DID know what   
was going on. There had been a dinner, one night not so long ago,  
where she had asked Pluto where the salt was. She received an   
answer that went along the lines of something about salt pans and   
the various methods employed in the mass production of sodium   
chloride. It was quite uncommon for Hotaru to get really cross at  
the best of times, especially with Setsuna, but this was one of   
those times, because the soup Setsuna had made for dinner really  
needed a good dash of salt.  
  
Hotaru chuckled into the covers, then sighed and went back to  
musing over her visitor. Within a few minutes, she had returned to  
sleep, and dreamt about life in a world that never should have   
been....  
  
----o  
  
For her, all that existed was flame. Deep, cleansing fire,   
its core purpose to wipe the world of all its sins. She so wanted   
to punish everything and everyone with that flame, and had done so,  
time and time again. It almost seemed impossible to her that it  
might, one day, be lost to her. It was all that had given her a  
base from which to form an identity in the years that had followed  
her, what might be termed as, abandonment, by those who should have  
cared for her the most.  
  
She didn't quite know where this love of the flame had   
started. Her prayers, in front of the ritual fire at the Hikawa   
Shrine, had been little more than a matter of course, part of the  
teaching handed down to her by the only person in the world who  
seemed capable of bestowing any emotional concern for her wellbeing.  
Even if he was an incredibly faulted man, her Grandfather had given  
a sense of purpose, and place, through the strictures of the Shinto  
faith that her family had, for the most part through their history,  
been acquainted with. Even if it seemed a matter of course that she  
should inherit the shrine, and the faith, where his own children had  
failed to do so, she WANTED it, deep in her heart, because it was  
something she could have for HERSELF, and not for the love and   
respect of missing parents.  
  
And with that intensity of belief came the ritual fire,   
burning as intensely as her own soul. After a while she came to see  
within it an aspect of herself, and with that a greater connection  
to the various gods that she worshipped. She never had any doubts,  
she had the POWER to be the next Priestess of the Hikawa Shrine, a  
power bestowed upon her by those gods, as well as powers hidden deep  
within her that she could not understand. And so she spent as much  
time with the flame, feeling its heat from up close, hearing the  
crackle of its whispy, ghostly strands, ebbing and flowing as it  
consumed that which it was fed. And within her mind, she could see  
the spirits that flocked to the flame, caressing her soul and   
stimulating her powers even further.  
  
  
And one day, it all changed. Changed because of someone she  
didn't know she was meant to be. And in a way, it hurt, because it  
meant that everything that she had experienced had not really been  
because of her dedication to her faith, but a matter of fait   
accompli. She was born to be someone special, but not because of  
anything she had done.... She was given incredible magic powers,  
and the ability to save the world, and it took absolutely no effort  
whatsoever. After everything she had gone through, it had felt as  
if someone had stuck a needle in her, deflating all the pent-up  
emotional energy, leaving behind someone a great deal softer and  
more relaxed with herself. Oh, she still LIKED to act the martinet  
around those she would describe as her friends, but in truth they  
probably didn't expect any different from her.  
  
After the initial shock, she went with the flow, for the first  
time in her life, she allowed herself to take it easy. Her   
Grandfather was getting old and a little dotty, running around and  
chasing the pretty girls. Then there was Yuuichirou, her   
Grandfather's so-called acolyte, who was more interested in getting  
into her pants than actually following the faith. But it wasn't as  
if he was a bad person, or anything, just wayward and in need of....  
How should it be put...? Babying? Yes, that seemed to be the word  
she was looking for. He needed looking after, like a child. And  
then there was Usagi, who really wasn't much better than a child  
herself, sometimes. Usagi, however, seemed to know her more deeply  
than she had ever allowed anyone else. An emotional barrier to the  
world that she could rest against when things became hard, as they  
often seemed to do. Yes, things were very easy for her, even with  
the occasional world takeover attempt by usually unstipulated   
villains and freaks, and the odd occasion of actually dying on the  
job, which she found to be somewhat underrated as an experience, but  
not one she would want to repeat. At least, not for a while.  
  
  
So why was she feeling like it was all a lie?  
  
In the midst of her dreams, she was burning....  
  
----o  
  
Naiad watched as the fire senshi burnt alive, screaming in   
pain and terror, her flesh being stripped from her bones by   
something that came from within, rather than without. And Naiad  
felt a slight smile come to her face. Mars had been particularly  
keen on punishing her during her time within the Moon Kingdom. Fire  
and Water rarely went well together, especially when the castes of  
Warrior and Clergy were involved.  
  
Mars.... The one who had tried so often to prosecute her, on  
the advice of others. Mars just wanted to punish, without even   
thinking about WHY she was doing it. She made life hell for anyone  
who didn't fit into the rarefied atmosphere of the palace. Whilst  
Venus had been the Captain of the Guard, Mars was the Executor of   
the Law, and she took her role seriously. So did Naiad. And as far  
as Naiad was concerned, Mars's role was the lesser in importance.  
  
Naiad 'fixed' Mars in the end. After she was dead. Oh yes,  
she made sure Mars was never quite the firey personality she had   
been to start with. And so she watched Mars's dream-state   
predicament with satisfaction. Feel the pain and the suffering that  
you imposed on others....  
  
And as quickly as she allowed it to start, she ended it. And  
all that was left of Mars was a smoking, blackened cadaver, keening  
on the floor of darkness for all that she had lost. For all that   
she was to lose.  
  
Lose Usagi.  
  
Lose the kingdom to be.  
  
And Naiad wept, for it was all too much.  
  
----o  
  
The pain was incredible, like nothing she had ever experienced  
before. Only she had, repeatedly, in her dreams. Burning. Burning  
everything. Burning things in her childhood. Her parents only took  
notice when she had been caught. That was when they had handed her  
over to her Grandfather. Because she had needed to be taught a   
lesson. All she wanted was for them to notice her, accept that she  
was alive. That she existed. But they never did. Indeed, she had  
made it worse. She might as well have never existed for all they   
cared.  
  
And now she was burning, and was to cease to exist.   
Everything was going to end, and nobody would care. She wished she  
could cry, but her tears would not flow, for her eyes had been fried  
from their sockets. And she accepted that nothing good was going to  
happen in her life, and that it was all going to end this way. In   
the fires of her own soul. And then dust and ash.  
  
The flames stopped and what was left of her fell, lying in a  
state so damaged that she didn't feel pain anymore. In a way, she  
was disappointed. She WANTED to feel that pain, so she could suffer  
as she deserved. Suffer and be punished for simply existing. But   
there was no pain, and there was no punishment. Just darkness and  
nothingness encroaching on the edges of her mind. Nothing mattered  
anymore. Nothing....  
  
----o  
  
Rei opened her eyes to the darkness of her room, surprised to  
find it was still there. Why?  
  
She turned onto her side, having wiped sweat from her brow.   
There was no end to this torment. Yes, that was good. She didn't  
deserve the happiness she had been given. The happiness that Usagi  
had given her.  
  
Happiness, ripped away from her, forever.  
  
Usagi....  
  
She started to cry to herself, softly.  
  
----o  
  
Naiad watched Rei cry, the girl so absorbed in her thoughts  
and feelings that she didn't notice the spirit within the same room  
as her.  
  
The breakdown that Mars was now feeling was mirroring Venus,  
almost at the same point. It was only a matter of time before Naiad  
could exercise her plan. But she had to be sure.... She had to be  
sure that they were ALL ready for what they had to do.  
  
To save the Kingdom of Crystal Tokyo.  
  
By destroying its Princess.  
  
----o  
  
Several blocks away, half asleep and half out of her bed   
covers, Usagi sneezed, waking herself up. Wiping her nose, she went  
back to sleep and dreamed of eating a grand feast of all the foods   
she had been told, throughout her life, were really really really  
bad for her.  
  
She didn't care. She lived a charmed life. For as long as it  
was going to last....  
  
  
--------------------------------------------------------------------  
  
  
IASFU OA FWSS IASFU OA FWSS GOO JUA GOO JIPEST  
and again  
IASFU OA FWSS IASFU OA FWSS GOO JUA GOO JIPEST  
  
  
--------------------------------------------------------------------  
  
DARK DAY FOR ANIME  
Concept/Writer: Mark A Page  
Beta Readers/Editing: Sievert Dinar, James T Woolford, Jeff Schell  
  
Version 1.1 - Friday, 21st May 2002 


End file.
